Biometric sensors are rapidly developing. However, applications of biometric sensors have not yet made it to the vehicle market due to difficulty in integrating biometric sensors into the vehicle environment and due to the need to meet quality assurance guidelines. Consequently, there is no secure vehicle system with biometric sensor capability at the present time. In vehicles of today, once the door is open, any user can drive the car. Currently, there are no biometric sensors and controls for vehicles.
Biometric sensors of any kind, such as facial scanners, retina scanners, fingerprint sensors, hand scanners and DNA scanners, have not yet been made to meet automotive quality specifications. One problem is that vehicle applications for biometric sensors are not very secure. Once these biometric systems are accepted by the automobile industry, then the systems will also need to be secure in the event of criminal activity in or near the car, such as an attempted car-jacking or abduction. In one embodiment, the present invention uses a facial recognition system as the primary biometric security system. Once this vehicle system recognizes one of many pre-approved drivers, the rest of the biometric systems and controls are unlocked via RF transmitter/receiver pairs, thus allowing full access and customization of vehicle parameters, such as seat adjustments, radio station presets, suspension system, environmental and steering wheel adjustments.
Known ignition devices are on the steering column or ignition switch and do not provide security. There are no known ignition devices that include remote control with built-in biometric security.